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NASB | Psalm 115:3 But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Psalm 115:3 But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases. |
Subject: Can prayer change perfect will of God? |
Bible Note: Part 2- In regard to prayer and it's purpose, I really like- and it's one of my favorite quotes- what Oswald Chambers says in the first chapter of his book, "If Ye Ask": "Prayer is an interruption to personal ambition, and no man who is busy has time to pray. What will suffer is the life of God in him, which is nourished not by food but by prayer. If we look on prayer as a means of developing ourselves, there is nothing in it at all, nor do we find that idea of prayer in the Bible. Prayer is other than meditation; it is that which develops the life of God in us. When a man is born from above, the life of the Son of God begins in him, and he can either starve that life or nourish it. Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished. Our Lord nourished the life of God in Him by prayer; He was continually in contact with His Father. We generally look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves, whereas the Bible idea of prayer is that God’s holiness and God’s purpose and God’s wise order may be brought about, irrespective of who comes or who goes. Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New Testament. When a man is in real distress he prays without reasoning; he does not think things out, he simply spurts it out—“Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses.” When we get into a tight place our logic goes to the winds, and we work from the implicit part of ourselves. “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him.” Then why ask? Very evidently our ideas about prayer and Jesus Christ’s are not the same. Prayer to Him is not a means of getting things from God, but in order that we may get to know God. Prayer, that is, is not to be used as the petted privilege of a spoiled child seeking for ideal conditions in which to indulge his spiritual propensities ad lib.; the purpose of prayer is to reveal the Presence of God, equally present at all times and in every condition. A man may say, “Well, if the Almighty has decreed things, why need I pray? If He has made up His mind, what is the use of me thinking I can alter His mind by prayer?” We must remember that there is a difference between God’s order and God’s permissive will. God’s order reveals His character; His permissive will applies to what He permits. For instance, it is God’s order that there should be no sin, no suffering, no sickness, no limitation and no death; His permissive will is all these things. God has so arranged matters that we are born into His permissive will, and we have to get at His order by an effort of our own, viz., by prayer. To be children of God, according to the New Testament, does not mean that we are creatures of God only, but that we grow into a likeness to God by our own moral character." [Oswald Chambers, If Ye Shall Ask]BradK |